Antichrist's Authority (Rev. 13:2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/23/2015 9:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  Antichrist’s Authority

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Revelation 13:2

            Message of the verses:  “2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.”

            In our study of Revelation at this point we are looking as similar things that the prophet Daniel had to say about Antichrist and so we want to look at Daniel 7:3-7 which shows the different animals that Antichrist will be like as in this section of Daniel he is describing different kingdoms that will arise by using animal descriptions of them so what we can conclude from this is that the Antichrist will have these same characteristics that these kingdoms had. 

“3 “And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. 4 “The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. 5 “And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ’Arise, devour much meat!’ 6  "After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. 7 “After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.”

The animal that Daniel uses to describe these different kingdoms were well know in Palestine, so it was natural for Daniel to use them in his description of these empires that will arise.  The lion represented the Babylonian empire.  It seems that I read somewhere that there were statutes of lions in the city of Babylon.  Medo-Persia was represented by the bear, and then the leopard represented the Grecian Empire for they moved with great speed.  Alexander the Great was the first ruler of this empire and he developed a new system of attacking called the phalanx system and it was very successful by Alexander as he conquered the known world using it.  Now we come to the last beast and this of course represents the Roman empire and Daniel does not use animals to describe it. 

John MacArthur writes “Like the indescribable fourth beast of Daniel 7:7, which represents the Roman Empire, Antichrist’s final empire will be a composite of the empires that preceded it.  It will incorporate all the ferocity, viciousness, swiftness, and strength of the other world empires.  This powerful empire, unparalleled in human history, will be Satan’s last and greatest attempt to stop the reign of Christ.  But, like all Satan’s other attempts to thwart God’s purposes, it will ultimately fail.”

            “And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.”  We see here that Satan is giving the power to the beast (Antichrist) so no human agency will be able to stop it, but we know from the 19^th chapter of Revelation that Jesus Christ will return from heaven with His saints and will stop this empire with the sword of His mouth.  God’s holy angels will not interfere in the destruction of Antichrist because of God’s supernatural restraint to the power will be removed as seen in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.”  If you want more detail on this verse look at my SD from October 14, 2014.  This restraining will allow the Antichrist to rise to power, and it is believed that this will happen in the middle of the Tribulation Period as that is when he will get his power from Satan.  Some believe that this restraint is the Rapture of the Church which will happen before the Tribulation Period begins. 

            Now we have seen pictures of what will happen is a much smaller way throughout history as we have witnessed Hitler’s power during the 2^nd world war, and then Stalin had great power during that time and after that time too, but this will happen on a global scale and some think that this will be hard to pull off, but remember that God is in control and the Holy Spirit restrains the activity of Satan from accomplishing this to happen at this time in history, but the Word of God cannot lie and since it says this will happen it will happen.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  This comes from 2 Thessalonians 2: 13 “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”  Because of this truth all believers in the Church Age will not have to go through the times we’re discussing at this time.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Every son was thrown into the river” (Exodus 1:22).

Today’s Bible question:  “To whom did the Thessalonians become examples to?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/23/2015 10:34 AM

 

The Nation's True Condition PT-3 (Hosea 7:8-10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2015 10:03 PM

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  The Nation’s True Condition PT-3

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Hosea 7:8

            Message of the verse:   “8"Ephraim mingles with the pagans, dissipating himself. Ephraim is half-baked (Message).”  “8 Ephraim mixes himself with the nations; Ephraim has become a cake not turned.”

            Dr. Wiersbe calls this simile “that of a half-baked cake,” and that is why I used the Message.  He explains “The nomadic peoples of the East baked their bread on hot rocks.  If the dough wasn’t turned, one side of the loaf would be burned and the other side uncooked.  Instead of remaining separate from the nations, Israel mixed with the nations and became like them.  Because of her compromising political posture, the nation was ‘burned’ by Assyria on the one hand and left uncooked on the other.”

            This is a good lesson for believers today as believers must be totally committed to the Lord and not just half committed to Him.  In the age we live in that is difficult to say the least, but we need to continue to strive to accomplish this full commitment to the Lord through our hearts, minds, and also strength being fully committed to the Lord.  We can do this by the study of His Word, through the listening to sermons, and to be active in a good Bible believing Church

            We will look at the next simile which comes from verses 9-10 and this one also speaks of compromise as we see in these verses a man getting gray, but not realizing it.  “9 Strangers devour his strength, Yet he does not know it; Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him, Yet he does not know it. 10 Though the pride of Israel testifies against him, Yet they have not returned to the LORD their God, Nor have they sought Him, for all this.”

            We have been speaking of Israel mixing with the nations and not being a separate nation like God called them to be.  This goes along with the story of the frog in the kettle.  If you put a frog in a hot kettle of water the frog will not want to stay there and jump out, however if you put the frog in a kettle of warm water and slowly make it hotter the frog will stay there and be cooked without even knowing it.  This is compromise that Israel had by slowly mixing with the nations and all of a sudden when you look back you have become just like them.  We have examples of this in the Old Testament in the person of Samson as seen in Judges 16:20 which reads “She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.”  This verse shows that it was too late for Samson.  We have been studying the book of Revelation since the beginning of this year and have seen that one of the churches, the Church of Laodicea was a compromising church “’Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked (Rev. 3:17).”  In our verse for this simile we see that Israel had a lot of pride (verse 10), and this pride in themselves caused the Lord to turn His back on them.  There are lessons we can learn from these three verses.  Believers need to be separate from the world system, and trust in the Lord and not in themselves as this is being prideful.

6/22/2015 10:24 PM

 

Antichrist's Ancestry PT-2 (Rev. 13:1)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2015 9:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Antichrist’s Ancestry PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 13:1

            Message of the verse:  “1 And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.”

            We continue to look at the ancestry of the Antichrist in this SD.  We have looked at chapter six in the book of Revelation earlier this year and we stated that the rider of the first horse represented peace as it showed a rider on it with a bow, but with no arrows to shoot.  We also stated that the man who would do this would be Antichrist, so from that lesson we know that he is a man, but during the middle of the Tribulation Period he will go into the temple and commit a great blasphemy against the Lord and this will begin all of the troubles for the Jews and also for those who are true believers.  What caused this great change in him?  He will be possessed by a very strong and powerful demon which comes up out of the abyss is the answer that John MacArthur gives.  Some think that he will be possessed by Satan, but more likely by one of Satan’s powerful demons who up until that time has been kept in the abyss.  Now we have also learned that this man will be a very gifted orator, similar by more effective than even Hitler was, and he will not need a teleprompter to aid him with his speeches.  As far as him being possessed by a demon let’s look at Daniel 8:24 “"His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, And he will destroy to an extraordinary degree And prosper and perform his will;He will destroy mighty men and the holy people.”  Now let’s look at verse 25 “"And through his shrewdness He will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; And he will magnify himself in his heart, And he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, But he will be broken without human agency.”

            According to John 8:44 which states “"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies,” we see that those who have not accepted the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers are children of Satan, but not all are like Satan even though they are lost and under his kingdom.  However the Antichrist will be Satan’s complete child that is he will do Satan’s bidding on earth more than any other person in history.  We can see his family likeness when we compare the what we read in verse one of chapter thirteen with Rev. 12:3 which reads “Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.”  Both the Antichrist and Satan have similar descriptions. 

            In our last SD when I quoted from a SD that I did in August of 2005 I stated that horns symbolize power.  Now we see that he has ten horns and this fits the imagery of the fourth beast in Daniel 7:7, 24 “"After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.”  “’As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.”  Now I have always been taught that these ten horns are ten kingdoms and many believe that they are from Europe, for Europe is where the old Roman Empire was and many believe that Europe will be from where the Antichrist comes from.  The reason for this is what we read in Daniel chapter 9: 26  "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”  We see in this verse that the prince to come is the Antichrist and he will come from the people who destroyed the city and the temple and that was Titus who eventually became the emperor of the Roman Empire.  Now while listening to a sermon by John MacArthur from this section from the early 1990’s he stated that the world could be divided up into ten different regions and I have heard this before too, but not sure if this is what this text means.  I lean more on the revived Roman Empire which will somehow have ten nations involved in it and this is where the Antichrist will come out of.  Now the Roman Empire actually circled the Mediterranean Sea so there is a large part of the world that he could come out of.  As far as the seven heads these represent seven different empires and we will look at this again when we get to Revelation 17.

            John MacArthur writes “Daniel described this final coalition, headed by Antichrist, in Daniel 2:41-44, ‘41  "In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. 42 “As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. 43  "And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery. 44  "In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.”          This section of Daniel chapter two is the interpretation of a dream that Nebuchadnezzar had in which Daniel interpreted it for him, and in the dream Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the statute that he saw was actually different empires that would come into the world and this part speaks of the last empire which will be headed up by the Antichrist.  This final kingdom will be crushed by the Lord Jesus Christ as seen in verse 34 and also 45, “"You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.”  The stone here is the Lord Jesus Christ who will crush his empire when He returns from heaven as described in Revelation 19.

            John MacArthur concludes by writing “The ten diadems (royal crowns) indicate the horns’ regal authority and victorious power.  John also noted that on the beast’s heads were blasphemous names.  Like many of the Roman emperors and other monarchs before them, these rulers will blasphemously arrogate divine names and titles to themselves that dishonor the true and living God.  They will follow the pattern of their master, Antichrist, ‘who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God’ (2 Thess. 2:4).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to live and act like my Savior who is indeed the opposite of what we have been talking about in this SD.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Approximately 1600 years”

Today’s Bible question:  “When the midwives failed to do as he directed, what did Pharaoh decree?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/22/2015 10:36 AM

The Nations True Condition PT-2 (Hosea 7:1-7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/21/2015 11:35 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  The Nations True Condition PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Hosea 7:1-7

            Message of the verses:  “1 When I would heal Israel, The iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, And the evil deeds of Samaria, For they deal falsely; The thief enters in, Bandits raid outside, 2 And they do not consider in their hearts That I remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds are all around them; They are before My face. 3 With their wickedness they make the king glad, And the princes with their lies. 4 They are all adulterers, Like an oven heated by the baker Who ceases to stir up the fire From the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. 5 On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine; He stretched out his hand with scoffers, 6 For their hearts are like an oven As they approach their plotting; Their anger smolders all night, In the morning it burns like a flaming fire. 7 All of them are hot like an oven, And they consume their rulers; All their kings have fallen. None of them calls on Me.”

            We are looking at the nation of Israel’s true condition by looking at several similes’ from chapters six and seven of Hosea.  In today’s SD we will be looking at “Their lust was like an overheated oven.”

            Dr. Wiersbe states that it is probable that the last statement from chapter six (6:11) should be joined with 7:1”  Let us look at it in that light “11  Also, O Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you, When I restore the fortunes of My people.  1 When I would heal Israel, The iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, And the evil deeds of Samaria, For they deal falsely; The thief enters in, Bandits raid outside.”  What was it that prevented God from healing His people?  We looked at this in an earlier SD, and the answer is that Israel was trying to dictate how God was going to help them, and God would not do that for it had to be in His way.  God had made a covenant with them and it would be through the terms of that covenant that He would act, by either destroying them or healing them as both were in the covenant. 

            Israel had a great passion for sin as it was like an oven which was overheating. The fuel for this fire was wine for we know that alcohol and sin usually go together.

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes “Hosea describes a places celebration during which the king and his officers get drunk, and this gives the king’s enemies opportunity to overthrow him and even kill him.  Remember, Israel had five kings in thirteen years, and four kings were assassinated in twenty years.  From Jeroboam I, the fist king of Israel to Hoshea, the last king, there were nine different dynasties!  Because the leaders were far from the Lord, the political situation was confused and corrupt.”  Israel had as many kings in a shorter time than Judah did.

6/21/2015 11:52 PM   

Antichrist's Ancestry PT-1 (Rev. 13:1)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/21/2015 10:53 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Antichrist’s Ancestry PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 13:1

            Message of the verse:  “1 And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.”

            The first thing that I want to mention is that in the KJV of the Bible we see the following way verse one is translated:  “1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.”  This is a very big difference, but from what I learned about this is that the newer translations like the NASB, NIV, and others were using older manuscripts than what the KJV used and so it is believed that the correct way this verse should go is the way that I have it quoted from the NASB.

            John MacArthur writes the following “The first sentence of this chapter belongs as the last sentence of chapter 12, since it concludes the account of ‘the dragon’ (Satan; cf. 12:9) and his war against God and His people.”  He then goes on to explain what I wrote above about the different manuscripts.  Let us look at how this would look if verse one of chapter 13 were added to verse 17 of chapter 12:  “17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.  1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.”

            John speaks of how Satan summoned the Antichrist, which is described as “a beast coming up out of the sea.”  MacArthur writes “Therion (beast) is also used to describe Antichrist in 11:7.  It does not refer to a domesticated animal, but to a wild, savage, vicious monster, thus describing Antichrist as a ferocious and rapacious personality.”  We have to understand that the beast is described as both a person and also a kingdom.  MacArthur explains “The beast must represent a kingdom, because of the complex description of him in the latter half of verse 1.  Yet the beast must also represent a person, since he is always described with personal pronouns (e. g. , ‘his,’ ‘him,’ ‘he’; cf. vv. 1-8; 14:9, 11; 15:2; 16:2, 10).  Daniel (Dan. 7:25; 8:24-25; 11:36-45) and Paul (2 Thess. 2:4) also describe the Antichrist as a person.  In this manner, Scripture views the final world empire as inseparable from its ruler, much as Hitler is inseparably linked to the Third Reich.”

            Some have said that the “sea” which is mentioned in our verse represents the “nations,” however it is possible that it could represent the “abyss.”  In certain verses from the Old Testament the sea is equated or pictured as the realm of satanic activity.  We will look at a couple of verses on this subject:  Job 26:12 says “"He quieted the sea with His power, And by His understanding He shattered Rahab.”  Next look at Psalm 74:13-14 “You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.  You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.”  Isaiah 27:1 says “In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.”  We have also learned that some of the demons are at this time incarcerated in the abyss as seen in Revelation 9:1-11.  We also know from the end of Revelation, chapter 20:1-3 that Satan will be put into the Abyss for 1000 years.  I have to say that it is entirely possible that the “sea” pictures the nations too.  My SD from 8/13/2005 has the following to say on this subject:  “The “sea” in many parts of the Scriptures means the nations or the Gentile nations as in a sea of humanity.  The next part of this verse speaks of a beast coming up out of the sea so this would mean that this beast is coming up out of the Gentile nations, and because he is described as a beast he cannot be a nice person, for this is the description of Antichrist.  This beast is described to have ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns.  Horns usually represent power, political power, when used in the Bible and this person will have very much power.  These ten horns represent ten nations, and most feel this is speaking of a re-built Roman Empire.  I believe that the seven heads represent seven nations, for when antichrist comes into power three of the nations will not want him as their leader but he will force them to come under his power.  There are ten crowns on his horns that represent the ten rulers. As this vision of the beast, (antichrist) continues in the later verses of this chapter it will become clearer.”

 

            We will continue looking at Antichrist’s Ancestry in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that God has promised that we who are in the church age will not have to see the Antichrist, or live under his power.  I am looking for Christ and not Antichrist.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Proverbs 4:23 says “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Paul” (Acts 23:11).

Today’s Bible question:  “How many years did it take to write the Bible?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/21/2015 11:30 PM

The Nation's True Condition PT-1 (Hosea 6:4-11)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/20/2015 10:41 PM

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  The Nation’s True Condition PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Hosea 6:4-11

            Message of the verses:  4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning cloud And like the dew which goes away early. 5 Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth. 6 For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 7 But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me. 8 Gilead is a city of wrongdoers, Tracked with bloody footprints. 9 And as raiders wait for a man, So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem; Surely they have committed crime. 10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s harlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself. 11 Also, O Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you, When I restore the fortunes of My people.”

            As we begin this very long section from the outline of Warren Wiersbe which actually goes from 6:4-7:16 we see that he writes that “In a series of vivid similes and metaphors, Hosea revealed the true character of the people of Israel.”  You must notice that there a number of “like” and “is” in this section of Scripture showing that Hosea is using similes to help describe what the nation of Israel is like, what their character is and he also includes Judah.

            The first simile is seen from verse four where we read “for your loyalty is like a morning cloud, and like the dew which goes away early.”  When we have a chance to look at the dew in the morning it shines like jewels, but after the sun gets higher in the sky and hotter on the dew it disappears.  Similar the devotion to the Lord by Israel is very temporary, it is lovely but not lasting.  When we look at five we see that the Lord had sent them prophets to led them in the right direction, but they cared more about what they wanted to do than listen to the Word of the Lord through His prophets.  In the book of Ephesians where Paul is describing the spiritual armor for believers we see that the last piece of armor is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and that is what the prophets were giving to the children of Israel, but they were rejecting it. 

            We see in verse six that the Lord wants relationships that are of substance as we read “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”  Let us look at some similar verses from Scripture that say this “22 Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23  "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king’ (1 Samuel 15:22-23).”  Now we will look at Amos 5:21-24 “21 "I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. 22  "Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. 23 “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. 24 “But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”  Now Micah 6:6-8 “6 With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? 7 Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”  Next Matthew 9:13 and also 12:7 “13  "But go and learn what this means: ’I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."”  “7 “But if you had known what this means, ’I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”

            Next we look at verse seven where Hosea mentions Adam “7 But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.”  Dr. Wiersbe writes the following endnote for this verse “Since the Hebrew word translated ‘Adam’ means ‘red earth’ it’s been suggested that verse 7 be translated, ‘They have treated the covenant like dirt.’  Adam also stands for mankind in general, so we might translate it ‘Like mere humans, they have transgressed the covenant.’”  Adam was given a covenant with the Lord but he disobeyed it and plunged the entire world into sin.  There have been other conditional covenants that the Lord made with Israel that they have disobeyed however He has made unconditional covenants with Abraham and also David that will never be broken as we can see from the last verse in chapter six “Also, O Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you, When I restore the fortunes of My people.”  God ends this chapter with a promise that will come true.

6/20/2015 11:12 PM

Third Preview of Antichrist

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/20/2015 10:27 AM

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  Third Look at Antichrist

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Rev. 13:1-10

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. 2 This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority. 3 I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery-but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast. 4 They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast? ‘they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?’’  5 Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. 6 And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering his name and his temple-that is, those who live in heaven. 7 And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. 8 And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made-the Book that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered. 9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. 10 Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword. This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful (NLT).”

            We will look at the last of three introductions to both chapter 13:1-10 of Revelation and these introductions have shown us a preview of who the Antichrist is by looking at, in the last two Spiritual Diaries verses from the OT prophet Daniel, but in today’s SD we will look at verses from the pen of both Paul and John and who also were describing the Antichrist in their letters they wrote.  We will also look at what our Lord said in His Olivet Discourse from Matthew 24:15-16:  “15  "Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16  then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.”  Jesus is quoting the prophet Daniel in this section, and what He is quoting happens when the Antichrist goes into the temple and blasphemes God there by declaring himself as God, so Jesus is saying when you see this to leave Jerusalem for this will be the beginning of great trouble for the Jews.

            We will now look at a rather long passage from the pen of Paul to the Thessalonians from 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10.  Just a bit of background on this section and that is there were some false prophets who either sent letters to the Thessalonians of spoke to them saying that “The Day of the Lord” was happening at that moment.  Paul’s refute of this is that if this were the case then the Antichrist would be in power and then he goes on to explain some things about the Antichrist to his readers.  “  3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4  who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? 6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”  We see in this section of Scripture that Paul describes his character “man of lawlessness” and the “son of destruction.”  We also see his career described “takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”  This means that he will break is covenant with Israel, the covenant that put the seven year Tribulation into motion.  We also see how he is destroyed by the Lord at His second coming, something we will look at in chapter 19 of Revelation. 

            We have said that this is the most detailed description of Antichrist found in the Word of God in Revelation chapter thirteen we have also seen glimpses of him in earlier chapters.  “When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them (Rev. 11:7).”  In chapter twelve we saw recorded the beginnings of Satan’s long war which is against God and also His people, and so chapter 13 logically follows which records that war’s culmination.  Chapter 12 shows Satan thrown out of heaven and chapter 13 he is described as beginning his massive effort on the earth to try and defeat God and His purposes of caring for His people so that there will be a millennial kingdom, for if Satan destroys all of God’s people then there will be no millennial kingdom.

            Sometimes we forget that Satan is a spirit and no a man running around in a red suit with horns on his head and a pitchfork in his hand.  By being a spirit he depends on man to work his dirty work on this earth.  All we have to do is look at some of the world leaders from the past and we can see how Satan used them against God’s people by having many of them killed.  In the last century between Hitler, Stalin and some of the other dictators they had around one hundred million people killed and it does not take too great of an imagination to understand that Satan was behind all of those killings.  This information, at least part of it came from a book that I am reading by Dr. David Jeremiah “I Never Thought I Would See the Day.”

            Not all of Satan’s people are possessed by demons, but some are and for sure the Antichrist will be possessed by a very powerful demon as we will learn later on in this chapter, but we have explained that there are only two types of people on earth, those that belong to Satan and those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, so Satan has many people to work with. 

            In Luke 22:3 we read these words “And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve.”  Satan used Judas to betray our Lord as this verse says that he entered into Judas to accomplish this.  Satan is no match for our Lord Jesus Christ as seen when He was on earth for we see in the gospels that Jesus cast on many demons from people who were demon possessed and according to Mark 3:14-15 He gave this power to His disciples “14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, 15 and to have authority to cast out the demons.  

            John MacArthur ends his introductory commentary with the following paragraph:  “Having been cast permanently from heaven (12:9), Satan will know that the time remaining to him is brief (12:12).  To lead his last, desperate onslaught against God, he will empower his final Antichrist.  The opening verses of this chapter reveal seven features of this ultimate dictator: his ancestry, authority, acclaim, adoration, arrogance, activity, and admirers.”  This gives us an idea of what we will be looking at in our next Spiritual Diaries. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have mentioned a book that I have read sometime back written by Warren Wiersbe entitled “The Strategy of Satan,” and in that book we see ways that Satan works in the lives of people.  We see how Satan will work in the lives of people during the Tribulation Period and we can learn from both sources so that we can avoid those ways in our lives.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I want to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength and to live in the love of Christ today.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mesopotamia” (Acts 7:2-3).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was told that he must witness in Rome?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/20/2015 11:12 AM